Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
free sms, free mail, simple handling, design |
| Disadvantages: |
server probs, many idiots in the community : - ) |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
Hello dear Ciao UK,
One more time it happened… Ciao Germany forced me by technical problems to look around here in UK. This time I’ll present you a website in the UK Version. Yes! Only for you I’ve checked the UK version which obviously is the same like the German version. So let’s begin…
***** the idea *****
Uboot.com ist a typical provider for e-mail functions. But his isn’t everything. Uboot is much more… chat rooms, Short Message Services (SMS) and a guest book. The site is paid by banners form sponsors.
***** the appearance *****
The Design impressed me most and probably it was the reason for joining there.
For a better understanding I decide to divide in the following into two sections
(main page und account area).
main page:
The main page is simply designed perfect. Especially the arrangement of the site really is impressive. Also it’s nice to see that there are no banners in the range of vision.
Above on the left side you can find the login. Here you can get to your own private section of Uboot. Also you can register yourself and you can send the Uboot team a e-mail message.
Somewhat further down you can red the almost famous FAQ (frequently askes quaestions). Plot of the FAQ also is the concept of uboot.com. In the middle of the page are serveral feautres of uboot.com also called advertising in own interests.
On the right side are some stats about Uboot. Here you can find a member counter since its existence, how many member register today and how many members are online or in the chat at the moment).
Also you can see in the stats who sends who a SMS. Very intresting… *sleep*. :-D
The background of the site is black and the writing almost is white. It really is great to see that still pages exists which are not overspammed with banner allover.
my vote: +++++
account area:
The account area looks more confusing and complicate than the main page. The background is still black.
On the whole left side you can find a narrow space with the menu and its functions. On the rest of the page are advertisings for uboot.com… one more time. But they also offer lots of gain plays there. Fun is guaranteed. Above all this advertising mess you can find the real interesting part of the account area. Here you can get to your mailbox and read your mails, guest book entries and so on. Also you can find improtant links to your nickpage, the chat and to the mobile assistant.
All in all the site is very confusing and not very organized.
my vote: +++
***** functions *****
1. mailbox
The mailbox is designed very well. Arriving at the first you’ll feel like home. The mails are sorted by time and unread mails are marked in fat letters. Under the list of mails are the ordinary functions of such a mail service. There you can forward your mail to a friend, delete it or you can move it to another folder like inbox, outbox or in the trash.
But this system is very oldfashioned, despite of it is simple it isn’t able to receive HTML-messages. So you only can write simple messages without pics.
my vote: +
2. short messages service (sms)
With just one click you can get to the input mask for short messages. Here you can type in a uboot nick or a mobile number. You can write 160 signs in one short message and the receiver will find no commercials in this text. Only the nick of the sender will be shown in the short message (data security). But sometimes it takes a whil until the message arrives in the right place. Sometimes it even takes hours… But always they arrive.
my vote: +++
3. foto message service
Here you can find a similar input mask like at the short message service. There only is one difference between them. In this mask you can send pictures inside uboot.com . You can find a subject line and a input mask there like at writing a mail.
Personally I don’t use this function. If I want to send a picture with text I also could an email with an attachment. Besides tehre are over 1000 different providers of e-cards in the web…
my vote: +
4. writing an e-mail
Under this point in the menu you can write your mails. With one click you are in another mask like the others with an subject line and the input mask for your text. Simple the normal function like all the other competitors. So I won’t give a vote on this point of view.
5. adress book
Of course a provider like uboot.com must have a adress book. That’s a duty. The adress book is compatible with the funcion from one to four.
I think this adress book is very great. Especially because of the clarity. You can creat diefferent kinds of lists for friends, family and so on. You can insert the data of the e-mail, nickname (at uboot) and the mobile number. Very great organisation.
my vote: +++++
6. chat
I don’t spend much time in chat yet. The most important reason for that are the persons there. They are simple idiots. I was in Germany in chat, I was in Britain in chat. It everywhere the same. Idiots rule the world.
It really is a mess but you hardly can use this function. Not only because of these idiots, the chat also very often collapse.
my vote: +
7. nickpage
The nickpage is something like a guest book. Because I’m not very active inside the uboot community my nickpage is almost empty. You can delte single entries from the page, but I think it’s bad that there I nothing like a spam list for this page. This would be very useful.
my vote: ++++
***** conclusion *****
Uboot is a very young and dynamic provider with a great design. But does it really matters if you hardly can reach the provider. I think not. So I can’t prefer uboot.com .
Now I’ll come to the end with some stats from the homepage of uboot.com:
3.601 User are online
623 from them are chatting
3.616.671 registered users
11.761 new as of today
sincerely,
Ciaobacca (25.1.2001 22:30; 1064 words)
-----------------------------------------------------
Original opinion on German Ciao:
http://www.ciao.com/opinion_view.php?Pid=1,12,55172,55184&ProduktId=526010&OpinionId=1925058
very helpful
